Catastrophic property damage often occurs in a home or office building as the result of runaway water leakage from a broken or badly leaking water supply line. Since water supply lines generally run throughout a house or building and are concealed behind wall panels, an uncontrolled water leak may result in extensive damage both to the building structure and its contents before the leak is detected. Some typical causes of runaway water leakage are ruptured pipes and loose plumbing; worn-out washing machine hoses, rusted water heaters, aging plumbing fittings, failure of automatic lawn sprinklers and other landscape irrigation equipment, component failure caused by electrolysis, sub-standard plumbing installation practices, sub-standard plumbing equipment, and frozen water lines and hoses.
Other causes include foundation shifting caused by seasonal drought or monsoon rainfall conditions; earthquake damage; failure of automatic water supply equipment at remote unattended facilities, such as livestock watering tanks and oil well pumping rigs; main water line pressure surges; malicious acts of vandalism to property; innocent acts of unsupervised children at play; uncontrolled water leaks that arise when the property is unattended, for example at a vacation retreat, mountain lodge, ranch hideaway, lake house, or at home while the owner is away; and to some extent, by owner neglect due to the simple failure to turn off an indoor water valve or an unattended outside water valve.
These different conditions may arise at any time, especially as building structures age, and create plumbing failures and runaway water leaks. Flooding in a home or other building brings severe water damage resulting in extensive destruction and expense. Massive difficulties arise in the wake of interior structural flooding as families and businesses contend with substantial loss of time, reconstruction expense and loss of usage and peaceful enjoyment of the flooded premises.
Moreover, there is an undisputed, urgent need to conserve our water resources. With the rise of the global population, domestic fresh water reservoirs are becoming increasingly more precious, and as a result, water rationing is becoming mandatory in some communities. Reports by the Chlorine Chemistry Council (CCC) state that Americans and Canadians use more water than any other country—even those that are as equally developed—with a typical family of four using about 350 gallons per day at home for drinking, bathing, clothes and food washing and landscape irrigation. The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) estimates that agriculture currently accounts for more than half of the state water demand (compared to 40% nationwide).
The TWDB further estimates that if a drought were to occur in the year 2050, almost half (43%) of the municipal demand for water would not be satisfied by current water reservoirs (based on current population projections). Supplying this constant demand for water is further hindered by pipes that have ruptured or broken as a result of faulty soldering, bad connections or freezing weather. According to a report by a leading insurance company, an average of a quarter-million families have their homes ruined and their lives disrupted each winter, all because of water pipes that freeze and burst. In such cases, an eighth-inch (three millimeter) crack in a pipe can leak up to 250 gallons (946 liters) of water a day. Moreover, a single pipe leaking just one gallon of water per minute will account for more than 500,000 gallons of water loss each year (according to the CCC).
Consequently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), after conducting a national survey among U.S. water systems, recently reported that the United States will need to invest about $138 billion to repair the water distribution infrastructure, with the single largest category of need being the replacement of existing water distribution piping, which comes to about $77 billion. These statistics and projections have encouraged state and local water resource authorities to implement rules and regulations, as well as long-term plans, to meet water demands through conservation, demand reduction and water supply acquisition.